10 things you might not know about Election Day

The popularity of early voting threatens to dim the charm of a single Election Day. Which might be a good thing, according to a recent study that reported an 18 percent greater chance of being involved in a fatal car crash that day. Without a doubt, it's a time when strange things happen early and often.

1. Jose Lira, a native Spaniard who had become an American citizen, flew 3,000 miles from Spain to Detroit to vote in the November 1960 election, only to be turned away on Election Day because Michigan required residence for the six months prior to voting.

2. The New York Times crossword puzzle for Election Day 1996 included the clue "Lead story in tomorrow's paper." Because of ingenious construction by puzzle builder Jeremiah Farrell, the answer could have been either CLINTON ELECTED or BOB DOLE ELECTED. The crossing clues were written so that either one would work. For example, the "down" clue for the first letter was "black Halloween animal," which could have been either "cat" or "bat."

3. On Nov. 5, 1968, when Illinois helped elect Richard Nixon president, one citizen had a heightened sense of alarm. The Chicago pedestrian alerted authorities that the under-construction John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue appeared to be on fire. In fact, the 100-story building was enveloped in clouds, not in smoke. Eventually, Chicagoans would get used to it.

4. If you receive a letter telling you that Election Day is Nov. 5 instead of Nov. 4, or that there's a "rain date" if the weather is bad, ignore it. That's a classic "vote suppression" scheme.

5. Forget about term limits -- we need terminal limits. Three candidates were re-elected in 2006 despite the ultimate disqualification: death. Sam Duncan lost his life but retained his county Soil and Water Conservation Board seat in North Carolina. Texas state Rep. Glenda Dawson won a new term after her campaign cynically sent out literature failing to mention she was dead. Katherine Dunton was very much alive when she ran for the Adak, Alaska, school board, but she passed away on Election Day. Just because Dunton was dead didn't mean she was unlucky: The election ended in a tie, and she won the coin toss.

6. On Election Day 1994, the Willis family of Chicago was driving near Milwaukee when a mudflap-taillight assembly fell off a truck, puncturing the gas tank of their minivan and causing a fire that killed six of the family's children. On that same day, Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan was re-elected. The events seemed unrelated until years later, when it was revealed that the truck driver involved in the accident got his license through corruption in Ryan's office. Last year, on the 13th anniversary of that terrible Election Day accident, Ryan served his first full day in prison on unrelated corruption charges.

7. George W. Gibbs Jr. was the first black explorer to reach the Antarctic ice shelf, but he held another distinction: He was born on Election Day 1916, when Woodrow Wilson won the presidency, and he died on Election Day 2000, when George W. Bush was elected.

8. One of the shortest Election Days in the U.S. takes place in Dixville Notch, N.H. Residents cast their ballots at midnight and then close the polls. But the town is not exactly representative of the nation as a whole: When Democrat Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, he finished fourth in Dixville Notch behind Republican George H.W. Bush, independent Ross Perot and Libertarian Andre Marrou.

9. As many as a dozen United Airlines employees said they saw a flying saucerlike object hovering over O'Hare International Airport on Election Day 2006. Also on that day, Democrats completed their takeover of Illinois' state government. Not that one event had anything to do with the other, necessarily.

10. On that same day when the United workers spotted a UFO above O'Hare, Republican Sarah Palin was elected governor of Alaska. We report, you decide.